High atop their orange bi-planes, Danielle “Bird” Hughes and Lydia “Squid” Beadle experienced speeds of up to 150 mph and ‘G’ forces of up to 4G as the planes looped, rolled, performed stall turns and even flew upside down.

All eyes were on the skies over Roker and Seaburn as tens of thousands of families basked in the glorious sunshine and enjoyed one of the biggest free events in the region’s calendar.

As well as the wingwalkers, the mums and dads, boys and girls delighted to see aerial displays by the likes of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, whose Lancaster Bomber, Spitfire and Hurricane roared in over the heads of spectators before repeatedly flying past Seaburn park Lighthouse.

And for those of a more modern persuasion, there were twisting, turning, speed filled aerobatics from stunt planes like the XtremeAir XA 41.

Meanwhile on the ground families enjoyed live music, ice lollies and visiting to hundreds of stalls and displays, many of which were put on by the RAF, Royal Navy and British Army.

“I was a soldier and so I brought my son Oliver, who’s four, along to try and understand more of what that involved – and to watch the planes,” said dad Trevor Thompson. It’s the first time we’d been to the airshow, and it was great – there was far more to it that I thought there’d be.”